As Petroleiras

Goofy and entertaining tongue-in-cheek European Western about bands of female outlaws led by two sexpots : B.B and C.C . Funny but mediocre film with tame action , struggles, and shootouts by the veteran Christian Jaque in frank decadence . The film starts with such a train robbery by Frenchie and his gang who actually are Marie Sarrazin (Claudia Cardinale showing cleavage and singing an enjoyable song ) and her four brothers disguised as men in black . Meantime , Louise (gorgeous Brigitte Bardot who also played a better Western : ¨Viva Maria¨ by Louis Malle) and her four sisters ( various Eurotrash girls as Teresa Gimpera , Emma Cohen and Patty Shepard) inherit from their parents a valuable propriety and decide to go the ranch for a while. There is oil on the lands and the neighboring rancher (Claudia Cardinale) wants to take them out. Later on , there takes places a series of disputes and fights between the two leaders in encounter the propriety . Meanwhile , a botcher sheriff (Michael J. Pollard ) meddles on the issues of the outlaws .

This is a muddle and regular Spanish-Italian-French co-production Western in Trinity and Bambino style with an appropriately goofy tone , customary issue in this sub-genre . The film has brief action, fun , brawls , light-weight comedy , cat-fight, shootouts and surprise-filled entertainment . The picture contains funny gun-play along with fist-fight very much in the Trinity's Terence Hill/Bud Spencer territory . The picture displays crazy characters with silly plot and some amusing moments here and there . It does eventually outstay its welcome, and there are a surprising amount of embarrassing fights and laughters . The pictures results to be a crossover between ¨Morris's brothers Dalton¨ , ¨Hill-Spencer¨ movies and ¨Seven brides for seven brothers ¨ , regarding the romantic pairing off of the four sisters and the four brothers . Michael J. Pollard -still recent his successful support role in Bonny and Clyde- steals the show with his gestures , faces and excesses as bungler marshal . It certainly has an enthusiastic cast , as there appears usual Spanish secondary actors as Antonio Casas , Jose Luis Lopez Vazquez , Chris Huerta , ApocalypJose Maria Caffarel , Luis Induni , Maria Vico, Miguel Del Castillo , Manuel Zarzo and several others. A really catching score musical with lively leitmotif by Christian Gaubert . Atmospheric cinematography filmed in Madrid surroundings , Manzanares Del Real and of course Almeria , desert of Tabernas , Spain . Silly screenplay with ridiculous situations written by the usual , also producer Eduardo Manzanos Brochero ( he produced several Western as ¨Apocalypse Joe , Danger Pass , Winchester one among thousand , Arrival Sartana , Djanjo the condemned ¨) . Good ambiance design and acceptable production design by Cubero and Galicia , both of whom created lots of sets in several Western filmed in the 60s and 70s. However , the photography is washed-out and for that reason is necessary an urgent remastering . This is a bewildering story , funny in some moment but falls flat and it will appeal to poor Spaghetti Western fans . It's a below average film , but still better than a lot of the ulterior spaghetti western comedies to come . If you enjoy to laugh at absurd movies , then this one is for you .

LES PETROLEUSES's marquee value was probably enough to have every European theater sold-out when it came out. Let's face it, no one would flock to see this for its plot and characterization and it probably wouldn't have been green-lit in the first place were it not for ravishing beauties Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale. With a story that could've been plucked straight from the pages of the famous European western comic Lucky Luke, Les Petroleuses is an irreverent euro-western cartoonish spectacle from start to finish, a low-brow comedy populated by stock characters and silly slapstick but still fairly entertaining as far as these films go. What really makes it worthwhile however is the screen presence of Bardot and Cardinale, none of which have to stretch their acting muscles to earn their paycheck, except look as gorgeous as possible. Seeing Bardot's bare buttocks and Cardinale doing a song number dressed in a skimpy cabaret outfit probably helped quite a lot.

Interesting to note is that Les Petroleuses plays like a male sex fantasy of female supremacy. Bardot plays notorious train robber Frenchie King, leader of four black-clad European babes, while Cardinale is in charge of a ranch and her four idiot brothers. All the men in the movie are stupid and incompetent buffoons, chief among them the sheriff who is a bumbling fool always running after his horse and Cardinale's perennially horny brothers. The women are sassy, bossing the men around and outsmarting them at every turn. Buxom beauty Cardinale has an old Indian housekeeper while Blond vixen Bardot has a black manservant (who calls the Indian his "red brother"). Both Cardinale and Bardot have the goofy sheriff wrapped around their finger. At one point Bardot kidnaps Cardinale's brothers, has them tied and stripped naked before her and rains buckshot on their bare asses! In the end, the sheriff drops his star and gunbelt on the floor and sighs in admission of defeat that "the west ain't no place for a man".

You can guess the conclusion from sheer arithmetics alone and the movie is pretty crude from a technical standpoint, but eurowestern fans will have a ball seeing two of the most beautiful women ever to grace the silver screen duking it out for crude petrol.

After the first half of the sixties,Christian-Jaque 's talent began to deteriorate .It was extraordinary he fell so quickly and so low after the brilliant works of the thirties ,forties ,fifties and even early sixties.

Probably made to capitalize on the success of Louis Malle's "Viva Maria" where BB met Jeanne Moreau in 1965, "Le petroleuses" is a slapstick comedy where two gorgeous cowgirls fight for an oilfield. In her memoirs,BB remembers she could not ride a horse,and she was terrified each time she had to get back into the saddle.Her screams (Mama!Mama!) used to make CC laugh until she cried.She did not like the film.I didn't either.

Unusual comic Western romp starring two foreign beauties of the 50's and 60's, Bardot and Cardinale. This certainly isn't a work of art but fun all the same. With Michael J. Pollard (from Bonnie and Clyde) as the sheriff, how wrong can you go? Warring families fighting over land (with catfights).

Wonderful music and an easygoing flowing rhythm, this film should become a camp classic. A 6 out of 10. Best performance = Michael J. Pollard. Good luck finding this one. Bardot's best 70's film (which really isn't saying much), but I had a blast when I saw this as a teenager back in the early 70's. Give it a shot!

Was blessed to see this gem of a movie in the Local Theater when it was first released. It was titled as 'The Legend of Frenchie King' back then. It is a 'campy, Spaghetti type of Western' that was original in its time for having females in the hero roles. IMHO, this film set the stage for the likes of TV series like Wonder Woman, Charlies Angels, etc. Etc. Be sure that you see the original, uncut version of this film...that is, if you can find it...I had heard a rumor that B. B. had at one time bought up most of the copies and had them destroyed, because she was not happy with the finished release. As was the norm in the 1970s, there was also an LP record release of the film-score, too.